The present invention relates to machines for assembling composite articles of hardware, e.g., for securing complementary male and female components of buttons, rivets, eyelets, hooks, knobs and like metallic or synthetic plastic articles to sheets of penetrable material, especially to sheets of textile material which form part of garments or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in riveting presses and like machines of the type disclosed in the commonly owned copending application Ser. No. 599,176, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,001.
The copending application Ser. No. 599,176 discloses a riveting press wherein a male first component of an article of hardware is placed onto a fixed lower tool and a sheet of textile material is placed onto a platform which is movable up and down with reference to the lower tool. The press further comprises tongs for releasably holding a female second component of the article of hardware at a level above the sheet of textile material on the platform, and an upper tool in the form of a ram which can cause the second component to descend and to be impaled on an upwardly extending protuberance of the first component on the lower tool. The platform has an opening for the lower tool and is moved downwardly by the descending tongs to thereby move the sheet of textile material toward the first component. The placing of the male first component (this component is visible on the finished garment which embodies the sheet of textile material) onto the stationary lower tool presents several problems, primarily because the indicia which facilitate the application of articles of hardware to garments or the like are invariably applied to the outer side of the garment, i.e., to that side of the sheet of textile material which faces downwardly when an article of hardware is to be applied in the just discussed riveting press. While the tongs can properly hold and orient the female component during movement toward the upper side of the garment which overlies the platform, the orientation of the male component is not as satisfactory as if the male component were positively held while the platform descends and the female component is in the process of descending toward the upper side of the garment.
The application of indicia to the rear or inner side of a garment is time-consuming and cannot always be effected with a requisite degree of precision so that the assembled articles of hardware are not applied with a degree of accuracy which is desirable for utilitarian purposes (e.g., if the article of hardware is a knob) or for purely decorative purposes.